Newsletter

Newsletter December 2024

Europe/Rome
Description

This is December’s edition of the newsletter of the COST action. The aim is to keep you updated on recent and upcoming conferences and postdoc positions on subjects related to WISPs.

 

Cosmic Wispers preprints

NuSTAR bounds on radiatively decaying particles from M82

Francisco R. Candón, Damiano F. G. Fiorillo, Giuseppe Lucente, Edoardo Vitagliano, Julia K. Vogel

https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.03660

Axions and other putative feebly interacting particles (FIPs) with a mass of tens to several hundreds of keVs can be produced in stellar cores with a Lorentz boost factor smaller than 10. Thus, starburst galaxies such as M82 are efficient factories of slow axions. Their radiative decay would produce a large flux of X-ray photons, peaking around 100 keV and spread around the galaxy by an angle that can be relatively large. We use observations of the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission to show that the absence of these features can constrain 30-500 keV axion masses into uncharted regions of axion-photon coupling. Our argument can be applied to other heavy FIPs and astrophysical sources that are hot enough to produce them, yet cold enough to avoid large boost factors which slow down the decay.

 

Preheating axions in string cosmology

Jacob M. Leedom, Margherita Putti , Nicole Righi, Alexander Westphal

https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.18496

In this work, we study parametric resonance production of axions in string models of inflation. We find that the kinetic couplings and moduli-dependent axion masses give rise to generalizations of the Mathieu equation, differently from the common EFT treatment used in the literature. We study these generalizations and determine the strength of parametric resonance created by such couplings. We then apply this technology to fibre inflation models, and find that heavy axions can be copiously produced and avoiding overclosure results in constraints on the typical parameter space of string theory.

 

Strong Constraints on Dark Photon and Scalar Dark Matter Decay from INTEGRAL and AMS-02

Thong T.Q. Nguyen, Isabelle John, Tim Linden, Tim M.P. Tait

https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.00180

We set world leading constraints on the decay of dark photon and scalar dark matter models. This work goes beyond previous studies, which investigate single final state decay products (such as electrons, or bottom-quarks) in order to self-consistently explore the full decay width calculation for well-motivated dark matter/standard model couplings. We rule out dark matter decays on timescales that reach up to 1e25 seconds at the MeV scale, and up to 1e29 seconds by using AMS-02 data at the GeV scale. We discuss the application of these results to more generic dark matter model building.

 

Extra dimensional axion patterns

Arturo de Giorgi, Maria Ramos

https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.00179

We study for the first time the complete parameter space of a bulk extra-dimensional axion. We find novel regimes where no single KK mode is produced along the canonical QCD axion line, and instead, it is maximally deviated along with several other axions that constitute a multiple solution to the strong CP problem. In the most common extra-dimensional models, namely for flat and curved Randall-Sundrum scenarios, and assuming that all Peccei-Quinn breaking comes from QCD, we find that these solutions are however subject to tight phenomenological constraints. In light of these results, only one -- canonical -- pattern can be expected from a bulk axion in one or more extra spacetime dimensions. As a byproduct, we generalize the axions eigenvalue and eigenvector equations for an arbitrary number of spacetime dimensions and compactifications.

 

We encourage participants in the COST action to send us a small summary, typically smaller than the abstract, of their own articles that will appear in the arXiv (after they appear, with their arXiv numbers). The summary will be disseminated in the newsletter.

Send email to 

Alessandro Lella alessandro.lella@ba.infn.it

Damiano Fiorillo damianofg@gmail.com

with subject: preprint summary for Cosmic WISPers newsletter

 

 

PhD/Postdoc/Junior Positions

  • December:

    • Postdoctoral positions at the Albert Einstein Center link

    • Postdoctoral positions in Astroparticle Physics and Dark Matter Phenomenology, LPTHE, Paris link

    • Postdoc in the MPP Theory Department, Max Planck Inst. Garching link

    • Postdoctoral research scientist position in XENONnT, Shenzhen link

    • Postdoc on dark matter direct detection, Westlake University, link

    • Postdoctoral Positions, IFAE, Barcelona link

    • Postdoctoral Positions, University of Mainz link

    • Lecturer in Physics at King’s College link

    • Postdoctoral Positions in Theoretical Developments for searches of high frequency Gravitational Waves in cavities. Funded by ERC link

    • Postdoctoral positions in particle, nuclear, and medical physics, Valencia link

    • PhD Student in cryogenic detector systems, DESY link

    • Postdoctoral Position in Particle Physics Phenomenology, Astro-particle Physics, and Cosmology, Chungnam National University (Korea) link

    • Research Associate-Theory Division, Fermilab (USA) link

    • UNDARK postdoctoral positions in theoretical astroparticle physics and cosmology, IAC (Spain) link

    • Call for expressions of interest for a postdoctoral position in particle theory and phenomenology, Frascati link

    • IFPU Postdoctoral positions 2025, Trieste link

 

  • January

    • Several postdoctoral positions in theoretical astroparticle physics, University of Padua link

    • Call for PhD students, RWTH Aachen University in Aachen, Germany link

    • Research Associate for Laboratory-based experiments searching for axions and axion-like particles link

    • Postdoctoral positions in theoretical particle physics and particle cosmology, Munich link

    • Postdoctoral position on babyIAXO axion dark matter search, Garching, Munich link

    • Postdoctoral position in dark matter phenomenology, Turin link

    • CNRS permanent positions in Theoretical Physics link

    • Two Postdoctoral Positions in Particle and Astroparticle Phenomenology link

    • Several Postdoctoral Positions in Theoretical Astroparticle Physics link

 

  • February

    • DIAS Full Professor in Physics link

 

Conferences

  • November

    • 3rd Workshop on New Physics from Galaxy Clustering link

    • 9th IBS-IFT-MultiDark Workshop: Dark World to Swampland 2024 link

 

  • December

    • International conference on Neutrinos and Dark Matter (NuDM-2024) link

    • Particle Physics and Cosmology in the Himalayas (BCVSPIN 2024) link

    • Bejing Dark Matter Conference and th BNU Dark Matter Conference in 2024 link

 

  • January

    • 21st Rencontres du Vietnam: Theory meeting experiment: Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (TMEX 2025) link

 

  • February

    • CERN Neutrino Platform Pheno Week 2025 link

 

  • March

    • 1st UNDARK School on Astrophysical and Cosmological probes of Beyond the Standard Model link

 

  • April

    • My Favourite Dark Matter Model link

 

  • May

    • Dark matter and neutrinos link

 

  • June

    • Dark Matter 2025: From the Smallest to the Largest Scales (DM2025) link

 

  • September

    • Invisibles25 Workshop link

    • 3rd General Meeting of the COST Action: Cosmic WISPers (CA21106) link

    • 3rd Training School of the COST Action: Cosmic WISPers (CA21106) link